Communicating with Difficult Customers

As soon as you looked at this title, you started thinking about the difficult customers in your life 🤔, some of you may have even had your hair standing on end. But now I am going to say something that you may not expect from an article with this title.

When we do business with a customer, we actually make 3 contracts with him. The first oneis the official contract we all know 🏁.

Here, a clear description of your business processes, that is, a very clear definition of the steps of the business and the product or service to be purchased, will help you minimize the differences in expectations between you and your customer ✅. In the sales phase, it is necessary to listen to the customer very well, to understand their needs and goals very well. The first rule is that the communication here should be very clear, clear, the customer should be asked questions about the issues that he/she is sometimes unaware of, but that you know, that he/she may need, and an agreement that meets all these needs should be made. At the closing stage, it is necessary to ask a lot of questions and make the utmost effort to understand. The quality of communication at this stage will prevent many conflicts or difficulties in the future.

The second contract we make with the client is the brand agreement ™️. This is not a signed written agreement, but when your client decides to work with you, they have certain expectations about your personal brand or your company brand. If you are aware of these expectations about your brand and of course fulfill them, it will prevent potential disagreements and conflicts between you. For this, ensuring that your communication about your brand on social media, your website and other channels is consistent and consistent with what you actually do and your values will enable you to create the right brand expectations of your customers.

The third contract we make with the customer is the psychological contract ⚛️. In other words, when your customers decide to work with you, they have other expectations in their minds than what is written in the official contract... These are completely related to the values of the customer. For example, if you are an idealistic customer, they will naturally expect you to emphasize sustainability in the product or service you offer. Or they may be someone who wants to be very organized and procedural, for whom following a certain routine can be very valuable. You, on the other hand, are more spontaneous and value flexibility. This person may want to have regular weekly or monthly meetings with a set agenda, whereas you may want to get together on an as-needed basis. His insistence on these meetings may cause you to see him as a difficult person. If your customer's values and motivations are not aligned with yours, this expectation gap will cause problems between you.

Another reason why customers are characterized as difficult customers is that customer expectations are not in line with the way you do business and your processes. What I mean here is that, for example, you may want to hold your meetings online, but he may expect you to physically attend the meetings.

If you are a leader who wants to be successful in the new world, you need to take all these elements into account and start from the marketing and sales phase when the customer is not yet your customer, that is, when you are trying to attract them, to the stage where you offer the service or product, and then to the stage where you make them a loyal customer by making them admire you;

The 3 Golden Rules of communication with your customers;

⭐ Clarity

⭐ Consistency

⭐ Continuity

to ensure that your customers' expectations are met. This approach will enable you to set and maintain your customers' expectations in the right way, which will avoid difficulties and conflicts with your customers.

If you do not do these things, if you label a person as a difficult person because of differences in expectations, if you convince yourself that he or she is a difficult person, the feeling that this will create will lead you to certain behaviors. This behavior may be confrontation, it may be sarcasm, it may be silence, it may be resentment. Whatever your preferred behavior is, rest assured it will not serve you!

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